Learning and Teaching Practice

Book Autopsies

2007-12-19T10:38:00.001Z

I love this - it'a absolutely brilliant! Words and pictures don't get together enough.

Not just blogging that can changes the way we think

2007-12-19T10:30:00.000Z

This Design Notes post by Michael Surtees really got me thinking again about how it's not only blogs but all forms of online post that change the way we approach writing...and as a result I'd also argue thinking.

http://designnotes.info/?p=1209

A Great Article on the value of learning technologies for writing

2007-12-14T12:02:00.000Z

and I'm sure there are many many more examples and arguments. I want to find them all. i really feel that visuals and multimedia are forgetten about when it comes to writing. I want to change that in my own tiny way.

http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/technology/el200410_yancey.html

Ideal 4: Tools for unlearning

2007-07-23T09:44:00.000Z

I wish i hadn't learnt a lot of the things I learnt from school. Like the fact that when you're a kid you don't know much. School taught me so many bad habits that I now feel that I have to start unlearning. Having the tools available to manage my own unlearning? That would be great!

Mentoring

2007-07-17T13:10:00.001Z

so I was saying - wouldn't it be great if we could all have a personal mentor.....

there's also a lot to be said for being a mentor.

Here's a possible solution: Horsesmouth.co.uk where you can find a mentor, be a mentor, publish and display wisdom......

Text Mapping

2007-07-06T14:49:00.001Z

Sandra H introduced me to this textmapping technique and I think it's brilliant! I realise it's want I tend to do in my head but it takes about 5 readings to achieve......this would be an amazing way to speed up the process - I also wonder if there's a digital tool out there that might do something similiar..

It reminds me of embodied learning too _ i forget the guys name but it's about embodied understanding and looking at things from different perspectives - wonder if it would be possible to do this with, for instance, this blog and thoughts in general because sometimes I think the web can force you to approach the way you do things froma single angle. E.g. try to summarise an idea in three words, try to sumarise from someone else's perspective (might be even an inanimate object..), summarise as a drawing. I could really get into this.

2007-07-06T14:20:00.000Z

Great looking powerpoint. Not always entirely sure what it's saying but it LOOKS like we agree.

Now I need to find a tool that allows me to add the text to the right or left of under the powerpoint so I can start uploading but also make my presentations "readable".

Ideal 3

2007-07-04T19:41:00.000Z

Since this is utopia there's no limits to resources so...

Adaptive, personalised tutoring/one-to-one mentoring.

(pretty sure there's a website where you can sign up to be a mentor or a mentee).

Great way to annotate video

2007-07-03T11:38:00.000Z

I can't believe this tool - three years ago I remember discussing a similar idea with lecturers on my MA and we all decided it would be too tough to create....

Many thanks to Lee and his blog for drawing it to my attention.

ideal 2

2007-06-30T13:32:00.000Z

At university, disciplines tend to be sectioned off. Our VLE reinforces this walled approach. I am increasingly noticing the cross-overs between the different fields and that many interesting ideas are generated by mashing up a variety of perspectives not necessarily focussing on leading thoughts or thought leaders.

It's accepted that you can come at Educational theory from the perspective of psychology, sociology, epistemology...but I've found you can learn a lot looking at it from the perspective of IT, linguistics, african sculpture, british columbian history, 20th century literature......Searching on google reinforces this approach. When you search on "education" it doesn't (at the moment) place too much emphasis on the context in which you're searching. It brings up any journal, article, news item that it finds with a reference. And so you get an extremely multi-facted view. Problem is, it can be hard knowing where the most valuable links are. Some way to map the many different links and ways in to a discipline would be fascinating and highly valuable. And of course different people like to come at things from different angles. I'd love to have access to the multiple angles from which a variety of experts come at a problem, idea, model, theory. A little sneak preview of how their brain is making connections......

Ideal 1

2007-06-28T21:05:00.001Z

NO Lectures or presentations unless they're hilarious.

Utopia

2007-06-28T20:59:00.000Z

I had made up my mind to explore my idea of educational utopia in my paper but I never got around to it...perhaps partly because I wasn't sure where to start, partly because establishing this kind of thing might make everything that I'm currently doing look unbearably worn and dreary.
...but then I work up last night in a cold sweat realising it would be crucial in order to feel really sure of what on earth I should be going now and in the future.

So, I'll try putting up one every day.

It's really time...

2007-06-28T20:16:00.000Z

...we knew what students were doing out there. What do they want from life? what do they want from university. I can't believe I don't know these things. Do other lecturers know these things? How are we keeping our finger on the pulse? What do students think about their experiences at uni? What do they enjoy? what don't they enjoy? I hear general mumblings that students seem to like online stuff. But what, when, how, why...who is asking these questions and finding answers?

The more I think about it the more I think my university education was rubbish. I never enjoyed a single lecture. Our seminars were incredibly boring - I don't ever remembing saying much, or being excited. I remember having to memorise a million dates of a million artworks in a dark dank library. I don't remember any of it. I never learnt anything I'd want to apply to my working or personal life. I remember loving drawing and painting....but slowly getting tired of it...feeling like it had no relevance to myself or anyone else anymore.

Only time will tell..

2007-06-26T12:33:00.000Z

This post marks the end of the LTP course.

Will my blogging habits change?

Back to the future

2007-06-23T14:55:00.000Z

I feel more connected now to ideas I touched on and had fascinated me when I was in sixth form but then lost sight of!

Reminder

2007-06-23T14:51:00.000Z

write up idea about metaphor to understand staff perception of LT and VLE, metaphor to facilitate understanding, theshold concepts. Need for expertise? or simply better integration with existing professional practice?

"Research has given me a million and one ideas for more hands-on training too which I haven’t had an opportunity to talk about, we don’t need staff to think like learning technologists but just recognise LT as something they need to and and essential to their own development.

Creating structure...

2007-06-23T10:10:00.000Z

In a previous post I worried about the artificiality of generating structure out of my work experiences when writing about them in my paper. If they're complex and messy, aren't I lying to myself and everyone if I give them order?

Well, I'm starting to recognise, thanks to an article on reflective practice and stories, that this is something we are constantly doing with our lives. We are creating meaning where, in reality there's very little to go on, because if we lived by chaos theory we'd fall apart pretty quickly! We create these structures in order to live and make sense of our worlds, the many roles and streams that we live in. That's really all I'm doing. Trying to present my own experiences in some kind of meaningful way so that I can continue to explore and build. And I have to admit - it does help. I think the most important thing though is to tread the line between total fabrication and utter chaos, and to flop comfortably onto the safe side!

Taking responsibility for our stories: in reflective practice, action learning, and socratic dialogue

Sometimes the first mark you make is the best.

2007-06-21T21:12:00.001Z

I mentioned earlier that there was something to be said for inconvenient persistence

Thinking again about this just now I think the idea needs to be extended.

Rapid sketches, drawing from the gut rather than the brain - with a pen and no rubber is a good way to find your way - develop confidence. Find a style. Make honest drawings.

Blogs have the potential to generate a lot of overworked, ideas. Everything is reeditable at any day or time. If I post this blog NOW, I can still set the date of posting to indicate I wrote it on 3rd February 1997. And who knows how many times I've come back to this posting and updated it....I might have been reworking it over the past week! Since I'm primarily writing for myself, I'm only fooling myself and I'm trying very hard to just write, bad spelling, poorly structured sentences but it's surprising how tempting it is to go back and fiddle. An old fashioned diary and a nice inky fountain pen would make this almost impossible.

More training more observations...

2007-06-21T20:37:00.001Z

Maybe it was just a more relaxed, enthusiastic group, but I think there may be more to it.

Having a senior (I mean in terms of authority and position, not old!!) member of staff, provide some background to WebLearn, and another, from within the law department describe how the template was developed, gave the training (and trainers), credibility. When the system went down in flames there was barely a peep. It seems to confirm my belief that we need to be involving staff much more closely in the introduction and implementation of new technologies.

Students using chat

2007-06-19T20:34:00.001Z

Generally, students seemed to like chat and were extremely competent at using it.

The lecturer noticed that students lacking confidence in the classroom tended to become far more chatty and self-possessed in the virtual environment.

Their only criticism - it's hard to follow all the threads and often people seemed to gravitate to chats with their friends in the same way they would in a live classroom - group dynamics were not altered or transcended.

Facilitation: Direction? or Nurturing?

2007-06-19T18:58:00.000Z

In general, the feminine way is to feel oneself to be intimately a part of the surrounding world, and to regard power not as "power over" someone, but as a quality innate in each individual, available for creative purposes, potentially in limitless supply. It is quite alien to the feminine side to try to control and dominate the universe, or to be obsessed with demonstrating "power over nature."

The feminine way is to view leadership as facilitation and nurturing, rather than control or direction. Its approach to work and life tends to be more process-oriented than product-oriented; in relating to others it starts from a position of parity, assuming the other to be an equal.

The feminine way is more co-operative than competitive; it involves trust in intuition, and thinking that is holistic, multivariant and multidimensional. Most importantly, "knowing" tends to be a relational thing, an ongoing process between an individual and other persons, nature, a "higher Self" - instead of a process of intellectual abstraction.

Willis Harman

Following on from yesterday i taught a couple of classes of Lawyers today...

2007-06-19T18:09:00.000Z

They were definitely better at leaving the computers along until I'd explained how things worked...so

I wonder if you can tell the way a class will act from the kind of department they come from...wouldn't academics in law prefer listening, theory, linguists perhaps prefer telling, architects prefer hands-on? hugely stereotypical of course...but it's a fasiohable thought right now!

But then..I was quite explicit that they should watch me first, otherwise they'd miss out. Who can tell?

"Recent psychology research suggests that people who work in science and arts think in a different way. So what is it that drives people to become scientists or artists, and is it innate? "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thenewtwocultures.shtml

It doesn't seem like such a new idea to me......

When I talk to my bro about maths and his way of thinking, he definitely approaches things in a different way to me. But is that because that's how we're taught to think? Or is it because it helps to think that way?

AT the end of the day

My First REAL migration training session

2007-06-18T21:10:00.000Z

Well I PREPARED for this session! Preparatory simulations, visits to the room, multiple emails to IT support and media services. And yet somehow, I feel like it was the most chaotic session I've run so far. I felt like all my prep and carefully structured lesson plan went out of the window the moment I stepped into the room.

There were only four staff, and they pretty much knew each other already - I didn't feel as if asking each member of staff to briefly introduce themselves would have made sense. So I just launched straight in with the overview of the session.....in hindsight, something that might have seemed overally formal would still have been useful - it would have been great if we'd had a brief chat about their experiences with WebLearn, which tools they were using, what they already knew about WL, where their main interests lay. Sometimes I feel like these formal intros are a bit formulaic, but I missed it the information it offers and the gap helped me more clearly recognise its value. Without it, staff felt that I might not cover the things they really wanted to know, I might not adapt to their speed or needs.

Equally, although my powerpoint slides also sometimes feel a bit overly formal. They offer structure and it's something participants like. I had a slide showing what I was planning to demo, and a bit at the end we'd have time for requests. without it the staff fretted. They didn't feel confident we'd fit it all in. Weren't sure of their progress. I mustn't feel uptight using these slides. They're helpful and I should stick to my original plan as much as possible when it comes to the main opening and closing sections of my training.

I've noticed that as soon as they're logged in, the majority of staff like to get going. They don't want to watch me do a demo, however short it may be, they want to click along. This can be a problem, as I discovered in my last session, because I can only demonstrate at the speed of the slowest attendee. Some attendee's like to make notes and then, they get lost and even further behind. More confident students lose the plot because at such slow speeds it's easy to lose sight of the original goal. More confident students also start asking questions because their minds are racing ahead, and in answering these questions, we're further losing sight of the one procedure we initially set out to complete. we were in a room where the stuent computers were at a ninety degree angle to the screen. Interestingly, the TLTC training room, which I've always thought was impractical, because computers screens face away from the screen, actually discourages attendees from tapping away whilst I'm demo-ing.

It's difficult when you've got an attendee who's loud, and wants lots of attention. Hard not to give all your attention to them. But since my last peer obsv when it became clear I had reacted to these demands and neglected my others students, I am more forthright. I will happily say, please wait, I'll come to you when I've finished with this student.

Tried a diff kind of feedback...the "start doing" "stop doing" and "keep doing". I am not entirely sure the feedback was any more constructive. In general the staff were really sweet. At the end of the day maybe there's just not that much to say about a training session. But I hope my future plans will leave them with more to think about.

Excellent Video Case Studies

2007-06-16T17:46:00.001Z

I'm increasingly convinced that the majority of staff need to see learning technologies in action to feel inspired and distinguish the "doable" from vapourware. These JISC video case studies offer a brilliant way to introduce staff to new ideas and for sparking discussion. Now all we need are some created within the university. That would be really exciting.

http://www.elearning.ac.uk/effprac/html/vcasestudies.htm

Peer review: Phoebe

2007-06-14T20:46:00.000Z

Phoebe is a prototype online tool designed to encourage teachers in colleges and universities to explore new approaches and tools in their pedagogy.

So far, it has proved very useful in reminding me how to clearly structure and plan a training session in minute detail. It also allows you to make notes on the session aftewards, indicating aspects that went well, and those that went less well.

I can't find a way to print out my plan yet. I like to do this as I often use my lesson plan as a support document whilst I'm training. However the formatting is also slightly limited - I have started using little icons to represent the different kinds of methods I'm using for each part of a session, and lots of colour but at the moment it doesn't support this. In other words my criticisms are similar to those of mind-mapping tools.

So far I haven't found it very helpful in exploring new approaches. I don't find looking at a list of tools and then ideas on how to use them very useful as it seems like a cart before the horse approach.

There is a section which discussed approaches and how different activities and tools might support them, however it did not inspire me. If the ideas were tied to videos showing tools in practice in real situations, I might be more excited and confident to try them.

Do I like being remarkable?

2007-06-14T10:52:00.000Z

I am a self-conscious person. I am sure my disability contributes to this. In Second Life my disability is invisible. It lends an anonymity I do not usually enjoy in the real world. But do I really enjoy it?

A large number of Second Life inhabitants choose to wear wild or glamorous outfits they wouldn’t dare wear in their everyday lives. I find myself drawn to really unremarkable low-key outfits. Is this because I want to blend into the background?

I wonder if it might be exactly the opposite....to be "normal" in Second Life is to be extremely abnormal!

Enthusiasm and IT

2007-06-12T20:54:00.000Z

"the enthusiasm of the innovators seem to inhibit their colleagues, who identified the innovators as mavericks, different from them (Watson, 1993)....results in a "credibility gap" - exposes the "myth of the role model as a basis for change"

"unreflexive and unabashed optimism about the necessarily transformative nature of new educaitonal technologies is both naive and historically unfounded. Fulann has reminded us that the focus today on technology is only thirty years aftera similar focus on science, which was stimulated in part by the space race and global political needs"

Pedagogy before Technology - Deryn Watson, 2001

Training today

2007-06-12T18:50:00.000Z

Basic WebLearn training.

I think it's the first time I didn't feel gut-churningly nervous before a training session! Even though it's such a tiny thing, and for most people there would have been no reason to feel nervous in the first place, for me this is quite a step.

I didn't have a lesson plan because I took over at the last minute. And it's interesting that perhaps I was less nervous exactly for that reason - because it had not been possible to plan and so whatever happened happened. That I shouldn't expect to be entirely in control. It's a good feeling and one it's worth trying to replicate, but I'm not sure how....

It wasn't exactly a smooth session. There was a very wide range of abilities...and at the beginning the attendees were nervous about being left behind or frustrated that they were being held back...but after about 30 mins it the whole atmosphere changed, and there was sense that we were all in it together. I'm not sure when the change happened...it was sometime between the point when one person didn't have a module, and then we faffed for ages trying to get one set up so he had something to work on, and things fell apart a bit, but then we worked it all out. I wonder if it had something to do with my own mood. Although I wasn't nervous, I started off a little bit tentatively...then I had to rush around because things weren't working and so I just became a practical person trying to get things done and it seemed to me that at this point we all seemed to relax. But maybe that's just the way I perceived it because as soon as I was doing something I felt better and perceived the class in a different way....?

It is so interesting to see that, despite everything I keep saying about it, the staff really do enjoy training. They enjoy creating these simple online presences. They feel proud when they pick things up. I love the moment when they get it and then they start asking questions and they're saying "oh right yes - and so if I do this then this happens and so what would happen if I wanted to do this?". That's the best part of these sessions.

It wasn't very well structured. I forgot to mention bits and pieces. We worked on things as we went along. It was informal. The informality definitely works for me. The more of that the better.

The Art of Powerful Questioning

2007-06-12T18:49:00.001Z

A skill I need to develop in order to be a really good facilitator.

I can't believe such a brilliant article is available free!

http://theworldcafe.com/articles/aopq.pdf

Everything's connected in the end..

2007-06-08T11:25:00.000Z

This is from my other blog - it's about how knowledge is not only held in our heads but also in our tools, materials, techniques.

http://www.ambientperformance.com/haphazard/2007/04/bodystorming.html

This points right back to that idea that learning technology training needs to be situated.

The big changes, not really ground-breaking, but ideas I've been thinking about for ages and that don't seem so unrealistic now....

2007-06-08T10:25:00.001Z

1. RESTRUCTURE TRAINING

Better to have much more shorter training sessions that are “just-in-time” training – staff choose which they come on depending on their needs. Also offer the option for more confident staff to try an elearning module that they can take at any time first.

Alternatively, and perhaps better if we can get away from the idea that staff can pick up effective learning technology design in three hours - a two day, project-based design workshop. Exploratory, staff become confident designers, deep approach to learning technologies and closely tied to pedagogy and their own styles. Help them understand what is possible and what THEY want to do and then help them DO IT.

Intro to broad pedagogic values, theories, even new ideas….
Emph on social and application rather than science
Could involve exploration of adv and disadv
Experiencing good and bad designs
Probs and solutions

then after that it’s about acquiring the skills that they can see they want to know when they want them. Not teaching them things they have no idea how to use. Who says this or where has it proved to be useful? Dreamweaver, flash, comms tools etc…worked here…there is also a JISC paper on this.

2. EMBED INTO UNI CULTURE

Integrate Learning Technologies into all levels of staff development and into the culture of the university as a whole. Not just about skills but also about attitudes. Needs to be promoted, integrated, recognised at all levels. If it isn’t recognised as part of educational development, as being all about teaching and learning practice then it has no credibility:

Introduction during induction
A module or at least a workshop during educational development courses (e.g. LTP) where pedagogy can really be explored – maybe get Simon PA involved?
Not only train staff how to use the tools from a pedagogical perspective but just as important have them be supported BY The tools walking the walk, talking the talk
certified programme?
part of appraisal
Resources to support staff outside of training. (informal), that encourages the integration of LT's for example Erdal has created a WebLearn IT support training and support area for staff, diversity training could take place through WebLearn, what about things like “how to use a digi camera”, or other skills that they’d be motivated to develop at home? Informal learning using learning technologies becomes second nature. These ideas are confirmed by Richard and James’ experiences, approach taken by Oxford uni.
“What remains to be investigated is how this approach complements existing approaches to support and develoment as practised by by established groups such as educational developers” Oliver

3. THEORY AND PRACTICE

It's what we've been embracing on this course. WE need to extend our practice with theory and experimentation. Better collaboration with research departments would be a good start, but TLTC need to stay up to date and do innovative work in order to inspire and retain credibility. Otherwise we're not more than a second IT training function. Action-research, offers a more structured approach to projects which would allow us to do practice-based research. It would allow me to feel like I'm stretching my understanding inside of work rather than spending all my time doing it outside. In a rapidly developing field “We should also begin to see the development of new underpinning theories and models of explanation to account for the use of learning technologies, and perhaps even the emergence of new learning paradigms and working practices. Only time will tell”. Conole.. Without integration with pedagogy and modern theory, TLTC end up just pushing a single technology that will rapidly be outdated.

4. BETTER INTEGATION WITH OTHER SERVICE DEPARTMENTS

Need across the board support and collaboration on large learning technology projects that have such a wide-reaching impact on so much of the university. Projects will fail if they’re not supported and recognised throughout the uni.

5. EXTENDING THE COMMUNITY

Importance of developing networks, communities that engage with technology, involving learning and teaching facilitators more (where they’re interested) – a broker between different communities (Oliver).

6. INVOLVE OUR STUDENTS

We need to spend much more time getting to know the students, evaluating the use of learning technologies just as rigorously as we evaluate our training and teaching in general. One of the most valuable things I’ve done so far is talk to students informally about their experiences using learning technologies, and their aims and aspirations in general, what technologies they use, those they don't, where they need most support in order to have a smooth journey through uni…..Discuss digital divide, get a much better understanding of what it means. It may be a hardware and a software and a training issues - Hertfordshire – have set up computer working spaces that support all kinds of approaches to learning – large group to individual (discussion with simon)

Is the pedagogy important?

2007-06-06T06:55:00.000Z

When we are helping staff in the effective use of LTs, should we be involving them in discussions about effective pedagogy too? My gut feeling is that we should if either are going to be effective - we shouldn't be seeing them as separate, or rather the emph should be on the approach, not the technology. Should we be using LT as a change agent?

In my mind, the alternative is to support existing approaches.

"neither hand or mind alone suffice; the tools and devices they employ finally shape them". (Francis Bacon)

2007-06-05T20:27:00.000Z

It sounds simple..I thought it might have something to do with just "doing" stuff, but I realise now it is probably a pretty vital link between my fascination with location-based, situated experiences, and my practice at the universiyt.

Location-based experiences emphasise the importance of the physical world, and our relationship to it, in creating meaning.

"An activity is composed of a subject, and an object, mediated by a tool. A subject is a person or a group engaged in an activity. An object ( in the sense of "objective") is held by the subject and motivates activity, giving it a specific direction. The mediation can occur through the use of many different types of tools, material tools as well as mental tools, including culture, ways of thinking and language." Vygotsky

http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edpy597mappin/Modules/module15.html

Back to the problem with training...

2007-06-05T20:24:00.000Z

I'm really starting to think that we could get rid of our training in the most part..it's all - I'll show you, then you do. Well, that's what simulations are for right? except even better because they can be done as many times as you need to get them right. And so....do we REALLY need this kind of training face-to-face? Maybe for some it's still important, but maybe we can really offer the option to do something different for anyone who's even slightly willing to try an alternative way of picking up the skills. Then use our time for more innovative, exploratory, problem-solving, sessions.

Something real

2007-06-05T15:49:00.000Z

I loved listening to Jay Cross.

I think we should start generating these kinds of videos at the university. Videos of real lecturers delivering real lectures, resolving or struggling with real issues. To inspire us and to raise awareness. I'm hoping that if I watch the video enough times, something of his approach will filter into my own practice....but maybe that's wishful thinking, but at the very least, I think it will make me more mindful, and reinforce what I'm aiming for!

The bit with the clouds is where it really gets good.

http://dp-x.com/dpx_enterprise/dpx.php?password=&admin=&dpxuser=ambient

I mean - i think I have probably had these conversations, with friends, with people I feel confident just chatting to. So some of the secret is just having the confidence to talk - in front of however many people.

It's also about knowing what the good questions are. And then having an opinion. And some of that might be to do with having a clear understanding, fundementally, of what you think works and what doesn't work. Knowing your area deeply, probably helps here. There's no doubt that he's an expert.

It's about being able to respond to audience's replies in a way that developers the conversation.

....but if staff are experts..

2007-06-05T10:58:00.001Z

shouldn't we give them the opportunity to use their expertise in relation to learning technologies? Or are we suggesting that they're not experts in teaching and learning?

Skills

2007-06-05T10:42:00.001Z

..have to remember that at some point, staff do need to know the basic skills. Is it something that they can really pick up entirely on their own? Or should we be showing them? I think it'll be a big leap of faith to not!

I KNOW...

2007-06-05T10:38:00.001Z

that it's facilitation and collaboration I want to be supporting more than anything else, deep down, I know this is the best way. But I think my language still suggests that I am habituated to a "teacher-centric" aproach. I keep thinking and almost writing things like..."what do we need to getstaff to do" - like I can should somehow be"making" them do it!

04062007103.jpg

2007-06-04T21:03:00.001Z

04062007103.jpg
Originally uploaded by Celine Llewellyn-Jones

Fullers successful schools.requires a professional learning community in which collab takes place at many levels

04062007105.jpg

2007-06-04T20:59:00.001Z

04062007105.jpg
Originally uploaded by Celine Llewellyn-Jones

Diffusion of Innovations

2007-06-04T20:34:00.000Z

Where are staff now, where do they need to be? Helpful when considering attitudes that need to be fostered.

1. Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" (1960, 1995). His Innovation Decision Process Theory proposes that there are five distinct stages to the process of diffusion. The stages are:

Knowledge - when the person or group begins to learn and know about a new innovation
Persuasion - the person begins to form attitudes through interactions with others
Decision - there is a drive to seek additional information and a decision is made
Implementation - as regular use is attempted more information is sought
Confirmation - Continued use is justified or rejected based on the evidence of benefits or drawbacks

http://education.ed.pacificu.edu/bcis/workshop/adoption.html

a bit more

2007-06-04T19:40:00.000Z

"the facilitation of significant learning rests upon certain attitudinal qualities which exist in the personal relationship between the facilitator and the learner".

"When I have been able to transform a group – and here I mean all the members of a group, myself included – into a community of learners, then the excitement has been almost beyond belief"

also Rogers

If I didn't quote Rogers here - would it be plagiarism..it wouldn't if it was in a paper journal...Whether it's on paper or online, I know implicitly it isn't my idea..suggests we need to put disclaimers on public blogs, however public or not they're intended to be!

I'm am converted....

2007-06-04T19:37:00.000Z

..this speaks to me. It aligns everything I've been thinking and feeling so far.

"The only man who is educated is the man who has learned how to learn; the man who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security. Changingness, a reliance on process rather than upon static knowledge, is the only thing that makes any sense as a goal for education in the modern world".

Rogers

http://www.mona.uwi.edu/idu/TrashLater/InterpersonalRelationships.rtf

continuing the debate...This is just great!

2007-06-04T18:34:00.000Z

“the history of educational theory is marked by opposition between the idea that education is development from within and that it is formation from without.” John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Macmillan Company, 1951) 1.

If experiential teaching works well in some cases, and not in others, it seems plausible that any curriculum should utilize aspects of both.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/mccain/audiohist/intro2.htm

so...It should be an "and" rather than an "or"

Carl Rogers is more unequivocable

Teaching, in my estimation is a vastly overrated function.

the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning.

Having made such a statement, I scurry to the dictionary to see if I really mean what I say. Teaching means “to instruct.” Personally I am not much interested in instructing another. “To impart knowledge or skill.” My reaction is, why not be more efficient, using a book or programmed learning? “To make to know.” Here my hackles rise. I have no wish to make anyone know something. “To show, guide, direct.” As I see it, too many people have been shown, guided, directed. So I come to the conclusion that I do mean what I said. Teaching is, for me, a relatively unimportant and vastly overvalued activity.

Teaching and the imparting of knowledge make sense in an unchanging environment. This is why it has been an unquestioned function for centuries. But if there is one truth about modern man, it is that he [end of page 57] lives in an environment which is continually changing. The one thing I can be sure of is that the physics which is taught to the present day student will be outdated in a decade. The teaching in psychology will certainly be out of date in 20 years. The so-called “facts of history” depends very largely upon the current mood and temper of the culture. Chemistry, biology, genetics, sociology, are in such flux that a firm statement made today will almost certainly be modified by the time the student gets around to using the knowledge.

Update on Martin Oliver?

2007-06-04T13:44:00.000Z

Theoretical Model of Learning Technologist's practice.

In line with my sketches on Kolb - I think this is also a better model

Conv with AA

2007-06-03T19:01:00.005Z

Conv with SPA

2007-06-03T19:01:00.003Z

Conv with Yeoung

2007-06-03T19:01:00.001Z

Conversation with Helen.

2007-06-03T19:00:00.000Z

saw powerpoint and saw its potential to really support visual students. Was always thinking of ways to "improve" experiences. Didn't think of powerpoint until she saw real examples of what was possible.

Conversation with RM about ID and adoption of LTs

2007-06-03T17:32:00.000Z

Always starts with basic content - students like to have access to that.

Thinks about other resources students will need.

Limit to what can be done in-class so considers how LT might augment or reinforce their experiences.

Important to encourage students to visit resources.

Extra allows for personalisation, to offer bigger picture, to broaden student horizons.

Decision to use google spreadsheets; problem with collaborating on data in spreadsheets. students are slow to get the data onto their own spreadsheet, needs to be collated somehow. Allows for a collective pool. Was a case of - here's my problem, what's the solution.

Multivalency (interesting word to use - multivalent - pedagogic (having various meaning or values), multivalent - in chemistry = polyvalent, in genetics Having several sites of attachment for an antibody or antigen), delivery of materials in as many different ways as possible. As accessible as possible, from as many different angles as posible.

In my experience - reasons why I need to make more effort to understand my learners and my learners' learners.

2007-06-03T15:48:00.000Z

Motivate staff - change can’t take place if staff don't see the value of a project or approach
Communicate at the right level – need to understand where staff are starting from in terms of confidence, understanding, approach to learning, approach to my training etc. etc.
Recognise hurdles - Original understandings of learning technology can effect the way staff engage with technology - may involve assumptions, misconceptions.
Develop mutual respect, recognise challenges - there is a sense that Learning Techs are being introduced for money and time-saving purposes, have nothing to do with improving staff or student experiences. Just something imposed form the top down. If we can acknowledge the challenges that staff and students face, and talk about value in a balanced way, show we understand and care about their challenges, will create better environment in which to learn.
If I understand what students really want from university, how they are living their lives, how their worlds are changing, then I can talk with far greater credibility, about how technology might support staff in connecting with students.
Support transfer - understanding context can help us recognise differences in discipline, epistemology, show technology as something that can be sensitive and flexible, able to perform in a variety of situations specific to individuals.

any raise on 6?....this is my last call.....

test upload thru mobile

2007-06-03T12:54:00.001Z

test upload
Originally uploaded by Celine Llewellyn-Jones

which means adding photos of drawings only involves one step form now on!

now adding a photo of a drawing only takes one step!

i an fully mobilised

2007-06-03T12:19:00.001Z

This is so easy! prepare for spelling and grammar to disappear

test from mobile

2007-06-03T12:16:00.000Z

Text goes here

inconvenient persistence

2007-06-03T11:40:00.000Z

Just had a convesation that reminded me of another reason why blogging, (even when it's incredibly easy to do anywhere and anytime with a mobile phone), and other digital technologies can't always satisfy my reflective practice needs. It's to do with the fact that they are so flexible and virtual and .....

I write a lot on my arm. This is not only because it's nice and quick. Writing on my arm is writing that won't go away, it just sits there, scrawled, flashing around whenever I do something..inconveniently, annoyingly impossible to remove. Post-its are similar although slightly more loseable.

There's no way I ever forget to transfer these ideas to somewhere else - my paper, a blog, the margins of another paper I've been reading and thinking about.

Digital notes are so easily stored and then forgotten. They're just way to convenient. They support my best but also my worst habits.

A lot of this also helps me define my own goals.

2007-06-03T08:36:00.000Z

Educational leaders and stakeholders will develop a technology leadership vision and goals for the district and schools. All stakeholders will know the desired technology goals and the measures that will determine if those goals have been met. Both the vision and the goals should focus on improved student learning and teacher effectiveness as the predominate outcomes. Teacher effectiveness in the final analysis must be focused on how successful teachers are in improving student learning.
Educational leaders and stakeholders will design and conduct needs assessments that will inform them where they are now in technology integration, will indicate how far they are from reaching their vision and goals, and will provide information about what are the initial priorities for accomplishing those goals.
Educational leaders and stakeholders will develop action plans to define immediate and long-term tasks, resources needed, timelines, and benchmarks for accomplishing the technology goals.
Educational leaders and stakeholders will develop communication plans and political action strategies necessary to establish commitment and obtain resources.
Educational leaders and stakeholders will design and implement the necessary professional development plans to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and skills to successfully implement technology.
Educational leaders and stakeholders will have sufficient knowledge of the change process research in order to anticipate and address change problems and issues.
Educational leaders and stakeholders need to develop formative and summative evaluation plans that will guide the successful implementation of tasks and inform them when they have accomplished the desired technology goals.

Critical Issue: Technology Leadership: Enhancing Positive Educational Change,

Gilbert Valdez

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/leadrshp/le700.htm

Goal definition.

2007-06-02T20:06:00.000Z

Without a clear definition of my goals, what can I do to define them for myself, within the context of the university?

In my mind, this is the most standard way that goals are distributed throughout a large organisation, but I'd like to think about alternatives...

As a service-driven organisation, wouldn't we be want our goals to be explicitly driven by the needs of our paying clients? And then why not let the staff have a direct input, taking advantage of their close relationship with clients, and their direct experiences, and finally just do a consolidation at the top. Our eLearning strategy is being developed more closely in line with this model - although I'm not sure how much input students have had.

This sketch helped me understand how I actually approach my role.

Although I feel an obligation to fulfill the expectations of the university – I feel a strong allegiance to staff and students and this influences the way I perceive and carry out my responsiblities.

In reality, I have a feeling the things I do are a compromise between what I think is important as an individual, what the university as a whole thinks is important for me to be doing, and the needs/desires/goals of staff. Although I don't know much about students - I'm trying to learn more, and as I do that, I think that will also influence the way I approach my role.

""it is only when schooling operates in a way that connects students relationally in a relevant, engaging, and worthwhile experience that substantiail learning will occur".

students should be "active particpants intheir own education"

"Educational change, above all, is a people-related phenomenon for each and every individual"

All from Fuller...

happy ideas turning sour....

2007-06-01T15:45:00.001Z

When I'm writing my paper, I find myself obliged to justify all my ideas with official theories and models. So an idea that might have popped into my head freely and happily turns into toil.

Anway, I can't wait to do more of that action research stuff!

HBDI

2007-06-01T08:17:00.000Z

I like this more than MB because it's not one or the other and it's visual.
I did it with a friend so that I could try and avoid a result that had more to do with my own perceptions.

I think it mainly confirms what I already knew...don't agree with it entirely - I'm a huge reader, I don't see myself as especially intuitive...

What it tells me? I'm feeling cagey...or lazy, I can't decide which. For now, the most useful thing it's helped me do is find someone with a similar profile, chatting and comparing practices and experiences was interesting.

A: Factual, Rational, Analytical
B: Controlled, Sequential, Detailed, Reader
C: Emotional, Talker, Intuitive
D: Imaginative, Synthesizer

Madly impractical reflections.....

2007-06-01T08:09:00.000Z

I think it might have been Stephen D's comment on not always thinking about "why I'm blogging this" that has triggered this conversation......the only thing that worries me about all this reflection is the circle that always leads around to action....

as an artist, I often reflected without ever feeling that my thoughts had to translate into practice. it was a sort of experimental reflection that often ended in madness and the ridiculous or nothing at all. I felt free to think the most crazy and impractical thoughts. I felt as if these were my most creative and also powerful moments of reflection.

the problem with kolb, and reflection-for-action, reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action is that they all end in action and I think it creates a wall. Thinking with a mind on action, I start to feel cramped by the need to be "practical" and I think there's a danger that it never leads to anything very exciting. It might even get a bit tired.

Unlearning Pedagogy

2007-05-30T15:53:00.000Z

"The shift from ‘sage on the stage’ to ‘guide on the side’, while it has served an important function in shifting the focus from the teacher to the learner, does not capture the fullness of the implications of this shift. We have been hearing about the importance of ‘lifelong learning’ for some time now in formal education. If, as Bauman asserts, ‘unlearning’ will be as important to social success in the 21st millennium as learning has been in the 20th millennium, then the habit of ‘lifelong learning’ will need radical re-thinking in terms of the nature and purposes of pedagogical work. Put simply, we will need to see a further shift from sage-on-the-stage and guide-on-the-side to meddler-in-the-middle (McWilliam, 2005)."

Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology

Restating something I've already said about 3 times before....

2007-05-30T15:43:00.000Z

As a learning technologist, there is defiitely more emphasis on the “technology” bit than the “learning” bit. (for example, staff come to me asking for PC support etc.., never advice on learning. We are experts in definable technologies. We have a much more ambiguous relationship with “learning”). In some ways, I am inclined to perpetuate this ideas since staff are often a bit nervous around so when I’m training in PC skills and procedures, I am the expert. In contrast, when it comes to conversations about education and learning, I’m suddenly playing with the big kids.

There are two reasons though why this is a bad idea. firstly, the "expert/novice" distinction is unhealthy in both directions. Secondly, “new technology” will eventually become a old and standard….. If I consider myself to be an expert in existing technologies then my job is over, but for me, “technology” simply stands in for what I’m really about which is “innovation”. If I see myself as a learning innovator, challenging existing learning and teaching practices, involved in organisational change, then I need to start engaging much more seriously in discussions about learning and teaching.

Pretty obvious what this means to my practice!

Oh how I've tried to like mindmaps...

2007-05-29T19:27:00.001Z

Sometimes I really struggle to order all my thoughts. Now I have to write an essay and the pain is all in the structure, not the ideas - I've got too many of those...

I've tried to like mindmaps. I've heard they're useful for people who find it hard to structure their ideas in writing. Also, since I'm a very visual learner - it seemed like they should really work for me. But I just don't get them. They're too structured - little wheels and lines and circles - how can they express ideas?!. SO, I did some drawings today on paper and it was amazing how easy it was to consolidate my ideas. And I loved it! It didn't feel like hard work at all. And they worked. The ideas that are here also have strong presence in my essay.

Good reflection requires surprises.

2007-05-28T17:29:00.001Z

Surprises require people, opinions, new situations.

slide sharing

2007-05-28T07:47:00.000Z

Much neater way to share and manage your powerpoints in WebLearn - can easily download them too.

http://www.slideshare.net/

The first thing I found when I searched on reflection - actually going through this presentation was really satisfying because all this reflection stuff is finally starting to look and sound familiar and entirely intelligible. (this one wasn't set up to allow download)

Figure 1. The relationship between the four models of professional development

2007-05-27T18:09:00.001Z

In our course, "reflective practice" is the promoted method.

So what is action research...what are these other approaches, what are the differences?

Which approach have I really adopted?

It seems that action research is more focused, more directed at change. In other words if I just hang-out, blogging to my heart's content, if I find there's been to a change to my practice, great! If not, that's probably OK as well. It's probably going to help somewhere along the way. Reflective practice seems to have more focus on self, action research in improvement in a specific situation or to solve a particular problem.

My blogging seems to have started out as something very close to reflective practice - not focussed and at times frustrating as it feels as if progress is slow, and nothing very tangible seems to come out of it. I've been trying to move towards something closer to action research - trying to aim my thoughts AT something, because I'd like to feel some sense of clear "achievement" and a greater sense of development.

Advice has pointed in both directions....and I see the benefit of having a foot in both camps.

I don't like the idea of "novice to expert". I'm always going to see myself both.

Eraut's Six Knoweldge Types relate to the Metacognitive approach. Not sure what "control knowledge" is. I am starting to understand how this is slightly different. It's more holistic. It's about seeing particular parts of "oneself" as "areas" for development. It has more focus than reflective practice but the focus is on yourself rather than a situation or specific problem. Described by many as a "map". I'm not sure how useful this is yet. Can you really treat each of these knowledge types as separate?

Can you really treat any of these methods as entirely separate?

Why am I bothering to work this out? Well, I suppose I was getting frustrated by my lack of obvious, tangible development. But now I'm recognising that keeping this loose can be valuable. In the same way that times when I'm not "officially" reflecting can be valuable. I don't always need to be goal oriented. In some ways this might be seen as a much deeper way of learning. I think I probably believe that.

Sometimes there's value in going for goals, tangibles, if it helps me to recognise the progress i've made, and maybe turn things into solutions that I can share with others.

You can find a similar argument in the Fine Arts - if you paint only for yourself - why would you ever bother to exhibit? I always liked exhibiting. I liked connecting.

Eraut's Six Knowledge Types

2007-05-27T18:02:00.001Z

Eraut’s Six Knowledge Types are:

. knowledge of people

. situational knowledge

. knowledge of educational practice

. conceptual knowledge

. process knowledge

. control knowledge

Really not sure how helpful this is. It's just Moon mentioned it...

maybe the difference is...

2007-05-27T13:30:00.001Z

...in nothing more than levels of conviction?

I'm not ready to start a war to defend a pedagogically effective approach to learning technologies. 

well, actually I'm sure these missionaries weren't either.

So I'm thinking the difference is that if you get a job in an organisation, then you're agreeing to their terms, their ways of working. And so although almost no one enjoys change, and in all organisations there's resistance to change, if there's a good way to speed up a change that has been agreed needs to be made, and is in line with the organisation's mission as a whole, then I should feel OK about taking this approach.

Which means the difference is only one of context.

I am not religious....

2007-05-27T13:27:00.001Z

..and I'm racking my brain as to why I did a search on "successful missionary".  It was something to do with the language I'd been using to describe what I'm trying to achieve in my job, maybe the sheepdog, shepherd imagery...that made me tap it into google....

...I feel really troubled making this kind of analogy.  A couple of my close relatives were, and maybe still are, missionaries and even when I was 10 years old, they seemed to me to be an extremely misguided, dodgy, controlling, and self-deceiving pair. Then there were the bible groups at university who preyed on homesick freshers.  It gave me an extremely strong distaste and mistrust of religion.

The idea of inflitrating a society in order to move it towards your own ways seems manipulative.  And there's way too much drama and authority and control in the idea of spreading the "The Word".  Illusions of grandeur.

But nevertheless, here it is - an overview, written in 1967, which really does seem to reflect the approach I have been working my way towards in my blog, when it comes to my instructive practice.  (if you remove the word missionary and replace with instructor).

http://www.urbana.org/_articles.cfm?RecordId=1003

Never in a million years did I think that reflecting on my teaching and learning practice would draw me into an uncomfortable conversation about my religious attitude...why should these methods, that have been used for religious conversion be any better when used for other kinds of change?  And is there any difference between this and what I'm trying to do?

Do you love it or hate it?

2007-05-27T11:17:00.001Z

Lecturers at the uni have widely differing attitudes to Wikipedia.  Some encourage students to use it.  Others remove marks if students reference it!  Very confusing for the students.

At the moment I'm with the promoters - as long as it comes with the usual warning about reliability.  I think it's a powerful point to accept - that no information is ever irrefutable, 100% waterproof.  But I'm interested to hear more from the other side.

SL language teaching....not such a bad idea then...

2007-05-27T10:52:00.001Z

http://languagelab.com

Is this cool?

2007-05-27T10:40:00.001Z

IBM have created a "formal" and "internal" version of facebook.  Is this cool?  I'm not sure.....

My university have set up a blogging server.  I'm not interested in using it.  What I love about my blog here is that it is independent and accessible by anyone anywhere.  This is my brand, my voice.  Not theirs.  If I was paid to blog for work, or to add my details to a work-style facebook....well that would be a different matter!  I don't see an incentive right now.

IBM hope that users will keep a note of all their skills - so a skills database....we tried something similar at Marsh once.  Didn't work because no one wanted to own up to skills  they had which would just lead to more work but not more pay - for example if you knew how to edit a page on the intranet - you got loads of calls asking you to do it - and the enjoyment people felt at feeling "needed" quickly wore off as they ran out of time to do their everyday job.

If it helps employees who's talents are not recognised to become "recognised" and if this supports employment mobility, it could be a good thing - I'm curious to know more.

Maybe I could teach English?

2007-05-27T10:10:00.001Z

This is how it feels to be retired....

2007-05-27T09:54:00.001Z

OK, the first flush of optimism is over. I want to teach in SL, but I can't teach anything that anyone wants or doesn't know already. I can teach the violin, I can teach drawing and painting, I can teach jewellry making, I can teach IT (lol).

I reckon I could teach prim building, avatar dress design but I don't really see the point, and I'm not sure what people would want to build or why.

Teaching in SL is about learning for living in SL - and I'm still thinking of ways to teach that can be transferred in RL. So I probably haven't really "got" it.

I tend to see myself as a digital native but in SL I'm an immigrant - the interesting bit - I'm not sure if I WANT to be a native. I remember this feeling the first time someone introduced me to email....come on Kirsty, why the hell would I want to sit on this PC, in this library, and spend half and hour faffing with logging in and opening up this bit of software that lets me write a note to you, when you're sitting just across the room from me?

I wish I had written about that experience and tracked the moment when I suddenley saw the value in it, the way in which my perception changed. The thing that swung it for me. This time, I'm not going to miss it.

eLearn Expo Moscow

2007-05-27T09:50:00.001Z

Moscovian architecture is MONUMENTAL

Some things were simple in a surprising, sometimes pleasing, sometimes dull way.  For example, lunch was a piece of bread with a piece of ham on top. The tea and coffee - accompanied by a plain bread roll. If you went to the cafe - you could buy a cabbage pastie, or an apple pastie.  No choices.

More than anything I really really missed the chats.  I've never wished so much that I could speak Russian.  Without it, there was no buzz.

Attending the show part of the conference reinforced what I've always suspected about these kinds of events across the world - without speaking or reading the language I just missed the "big it up" speak.  I saw a lot of laptops, bored sales people, posters with big logos, screengrabs of databases and interfaces,  pamphlets with lots of words and pictures of things like trees and things suggesting "growth" and development.  How clean and beautiful and organised it all looked.  All about control. But not tactile, inspiring, rarely learning. 

At the same time, talking about location-based gaming for learning, I felt like marie-antoinette...."let them eat cake!"

Well, not quite like that, more like....

"let them eat an incredible substance that involves a chemical reaction in which mystery things involving bio-reactions and organic activities and applied warmth, turn tiny bits of dust and water, unto something unbelievably tasty and verstatile that we can eat anywhere and anyplace and with anything"

In other words I'm just talking about "play", but I've ended up in the "extra foofy" sounds "extra clever" trap.

 

Some feedback about teaching in Second Life

2007-05-20T22:17:00.001Z

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_sec.html

Why do I blog this?

I've sent off an app to be a Second Life teacher in my spare time and so I'm curious to know more about the experience

How is this significant to my practice?

I think teaching in SL will have several differences to teaching RL, but I also think there will things that will transfer.  I'm sure I'll feel a bit more confident teaching in SL than I do in RL when it's a large class, but more important, I have a feeling I'll be more willing to experiment.

Adding more structure to my blog

2007-05-20T18:53:00.001Z

From now on I will be adding 2 questions to the bottom of every blog:

"why do I blog this"?

"what significance does this have to my practice"

so here goes...

"Why do I blog this"?

Because I've noticed that my blog postings sometimes lack focus and very often there I don't seem to spend the time tying my thoughts back to my practice

"what signficance does this have to my practice?"

I'm hoping that this will encourage me to get into good reflective habits, with a focus on improving my practice rather than reflecting on the world in general.

Discussion forums

2007-05-19T16:45:00.001Z

Discussion forums I should join...until now I've joined things like learning technologist forums, which primarily discuss tools - which is OK, but often I've got more than enough ideas about these to be getting on with.  I really REALLY should be joining something more to do with higher education, continuing educational development, learning and teaching practice in general.

DotSUB. The perfect tool for transcribing videos!

2007-05-19T14:49:00.000Z

I videoed one of my training sessions so I could look back myself and see if there were things I or my observer had missed.

My one concern was how to make the video more meaningful later on. Cutting up is fine (although very time consuming). I could stick it into powerpoint to annotate but I'd need to cut up the video into really small pieces.

DotSUB is perfect. Actually a film translation tool but allows me to annotate the video in real-time and give sub-titles. Perfect for real-time reflection. (Also really great for making video accessible to students with hearing impairments!).

This section shows how the sound of the projector is making it really hard for everyone to hear! Either I speak up - or I find a way to turn it off when we're not using it!

Different kinds of reflection

2007-05-19T14:06:00.001Z

When it comes to supporting reflection in a short 3 hours session I think it's helpful to see reflection as coming in different flavours.....for example: we might say there’s the lifelong, slowly thoughtful, always
maturing, expensive wine kind of reflection and then there’s combat reflection, the fast in and then fast out –
the sparkling cheap bubbly kind of reflection where you pop the cork, it’s a
bit dramatic, it’s an event, short, sharp, lively and entertaining, that
hopefully has an impact and that you remember for the rest of your life – with any
luck!

and I like this because

2007-05-18T21:36:00.001Z

..sometimes I'm a bit in awe of lecturers but seeing teaching as actually collaborating and facilitating helps me feel that I'm helping and supporting, makes the whole thing seem much more fun, more helpful, more sensible, stops me feeling like I have to be an expert and one slip and everyone will work out that I'm not.  It starts to make you think that maybe if you're a good facilitator you could almost teach anything....hmm there has to be a flaw there..surely!

Anyway the point is...

2007-05-18T21:22:00.001Z

When we're talking about the development of staff, we're talking about the development of peers, (although I'm coming to recognise that all students are potentially peers; age shouldn't matter, position shouldn't matter, qualification doesn't matter, experience doesn't matter), and in my mind, collaboration seems the most appropriate approach.  I need to understand where they're coming from and what they want to do.  The more I can understand every one of my students, the better I can be as what I think I should be which is a facilitator, and which I like better than trainer which just sounds like someone who teaches dogs to "sit!"

The only problem....what if you have a student who you really can't see eye to eye with.  Do you try to persuade them that your approach is better?  Well, I suppose you just offer an opinion. And then it's up to both of you if anyone listens to anyone else.

I hear a lot of lecturers saying that there's some "actor" in every teacher

2007-05-18T21:04:00.001Z

and that teachers like to be the centre of attention. I don't think my best teachers were necessarily like this.  They made the students feel as if they were the centre of attention.

Listening to teach

2007-05-18T21:02:00.001Z

This has something to do with it, but I think there's more to it - it's closer to saying, we'll get to the answer together.  Maybe this isn't a very practical approach when you've only got 1 hour ;-)

Listening to Teach

"Taking a listening stance toward teaching is key to reconceptualizing pedagogy that is responsive to students living and learning in a pluralistic democracy."

Katherine Schultz

Listening: A Framework for Teaching Across Differences

In Listening: A Framework for Teaching Across Differences, Katherine Schultz explains that she sees listening as an active, thoughtful practice through which teachers can more deeply understand their students and what they need in terms of the learning environment. She states, "I use the term listening
to refer to more than just hearing. As used here, it suggests how a
teacher attends to individuals, the classroom as a group, the broader
social context, and, cutting across all of these, to silence and acts
of silencing. Teachers listen for the individual voices and gestures in their classrooms; they also listen
for the heartbeat or tenor of the group. ... The phrase 'listening to
teach' implies that the knowledge of who the learner is and the
understandings that both the teacher and learner bring to a situation
constitute the starting place for teaching. Listening encompasses
written words as well as those that are spoken, words that are
whispered, those enacted in gesture, and those left unsaid. It is an
active process that allows us to both maintain and cross boundaries.
When I listen to teach, I am changed by what I hear" (Schultz, pp. 8-9).  THIS BIT HERE - don't think just change in order that you can teach better, surely change because you change together...?

Schultz suggests four kinds of listening that teachers must engage in to truly understand teaching and learning, and to be able to engage all students so they can be successful:

Listening to know particular students
Listening to the rhythm and balance of the classroom
Listening to the social, cultural, and community contexts of students' lives
Listening for silence and acts of silencing

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Sp-_0u88z8IJ:www.edutopia.org/modules/mi/why.php+I+am+not+simply+suggesting+that+teachers+listen+to+students%27+stories&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Oh I just had a brainwave

2007-05-18T20:57:00.001Z

The student who didn't "get it".

What about asking another student to explain the task to student.  Might that have helped?  It would have taken longer.  But it would have offered a different perspective.  It would have stopped me from being the "leader".  Some training sites say the most important thing in training in a pro environment is to start by establishing credibility.  But I think this goes hand-in-hand with the confidence to say - I don't always know the best way. Maybe easier said than done...

"guide on the side and all that"....

2007-05-18T20:49:00.001Z

Constructivism is all the rage - but it still suggests a teacher who knows more than the students doesn't it?  Suggests there's someone facilitating, someonce involved in "guidance" which is pretty close to "leading" or what I mentioned before...shepherding.  What kind of teaching, learning relationship is there when it's a real collaboration.  One-to-one.  The student teaches and the teacher is the student.  The only difference is the  student is there to develop what they want to develop, because they're the client, and the instructor is the servant, and is there as the sounding board, as the sponge, the mentor, but not a mentor who's wiser, necessarily.  What is this approach?  Because I'm starting to think that I don't know anything more than I did when I was a child.  and sometimes I wish my child self could come and talk some sense into my adult self!  I used to see things as they were when I was a kid.  I knew how I wished school would be and I'm starting to wonder if I wasn't right all along!  And if so I should definitely be listening to my students more than I should be telling them what to do!

I've noticed this with the students who are coming in to help us at the moment.  That they seem to know as much, and more than me.  And I often listen to them and think "wow, you're smart, you shouldn't be asking me!" and then I start to realise that the only difference between us is that they just lack confidence.

Student Training Debrief

2007-05-17T18:17:00.001Z

I had a go at using deBono's red hats for this - I have to say, that little bit of structure and the time limit are amazing for forcing you to FOCUS! Something I should do more often...

the results are short and sweet but I think get to the point:

Focus: Debrief of training session

Mode: Individual

Date :17/05/2007

Name Celine

Hat sequence used

Yellow Hat
01:04 mins
Search for benefits and values

Black Hat
01:42 mins
Identify the difficulties and dangers.

Yellow Hat

I was well prepared

I managed to learn all the student's names

I was awake and enthusiastic

We managed to get through all the essential things we needed to cover

I kept the intro nice and fast so the students could get to the hands-on fairly quickly

I tried a few new interactive techniques - they seemed to work!

Black Hat

I think I was a bit flat at the start - partly to do with nerves...

I got a bit frustrated with one of the students who didn't "get" it and often didn't listen to my instructions - I think I made him feel more nervous. I need to find ways to communicate ideas in different ways. In particular in this session I should have explained concepts ahead of
time so students who preferred to see the whole journey before beginning the individual steps

I didn't remember the logins

I should have shown them an example of a map before they started designing their own.

SL for law education

2007-05-17T13:48:00.001Z

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_sec.html

Reflecting on the future

2007-05-17T13:19:00.001Z

"Schon talks of reflection being thoughtful about the past (on-action)

and present (in-action), but making predictions seems closer to Dewey's

idea of reflection as thoughtful activity that informs future

actions/conclusions..?" (I like this comment from SG listserv - jhabgood@blueyonder.co.uk).  I like this because it reminds me that reflection isn't just backward. I think this is a draw back of Schon - there is an implication that you should start with your practice.  Sometimes you don't really have one to start with - and if so, you have to come up with a theory to inform future practice instead.,/span>

Bring it together: Reflection in non-educational games

2007-05-16T20:50:00.000Z

An interesting conversation from the Serious Games List-serv:

"Thanks KellyAnn, Yolanda,

I'm not convinced it's incidental or accidental educational outcomes of
non educational experiences that I'm talking about: its more about where
reflective opportunities exist in the game-playing experience. I’m
probably not explaining this well but to draw a parallel:

You might ask when does a person learning to drive a car reflect on their
learning experience: is it while they are driving (reflection-in-action),
after they are driving (reflection-on-action), does it require an
instructor to help them reflect, does it help to watch someone else
drive... etc.

So when does a person learning to play a game reflect on their learning
experience with the game: while they are playing, after they stop playing,
in the playground talking with their friends, watching someone else play,
reading the manual when they get stuck…

I’m guessing the answer is no there isn’t any research on that, but that’s
helpful to know too…

Cheers,

Jacob"

optimism again....

2007-05-14T09:06:00.000Z

I tend to be optimistic, but is it the best way? I am starting to realise it can have an impact (and not always a good one), on my teaching practice.

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/02/i_am_neither_pe.html

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/article?title=Optimism+Pessimism+Pragmatism&title_type=tka&year_from=2002&year_to=2007&database=1&pageSize=20&index=2

My first training session in second life....

2007-05-14T08:06:00.000Z

Pretty impressive numbers - all interested in knowing more about how to teach in second life. SL training, it turns out, is very similar to RL training. Except there are some nifty techniques you need to learn in order to communicate using chat - ways to answer questions, so that attendees know who's question you're answering...ways to deal with off-subject questions..

It was interesting to hear how the instructor had experimented with lots of different approaches and had come up with new ways of training...ways which sounded to me like they would work just as well outside...like the "no-concept" training session!

In general it seemed quite familiar - we had a sweet and very professional trainer. We were sitting down for the whole session..I got itchy feet half way through...I felt a little apologetic when I got up to have a stretch (virtually that is). There was a guy that sat in front of me for a bit, so I found I had to move...perhaps just a little more casual - one attendee chose to arrive naked

Have I "got it"? What does "getting it" mean?

2007-05-13T12:18:00.000Z

I read an account of really good, reflective thinking. It was about thinking about thinking and then thinking about thinking about thinking. But the most important bit was that this was taking place during an ACTIVITY when the activity wasn't "now it's time to reflect". It was not separate from...

I am starting to think about thinking. I'm starting to think about other people's thinking. I see the value of it, how it has helped me progress. I often write in my journal. I am mindful of my thinking.

"Explicity" thinking, takes time and effort. If I don't do it "explicitly", I'm still worried that it won't happen at all. I'm not at a point when it just happens all the time, while I'm doing things, without "trying". I'm still having to work at it. I'm just not sure how well that's going to happen when I'm not thinking to myself "I'm on the LTP course, I must remember to think, it's what I'm "meant" to do". At the moment the course is still part of the motivation. I suppose it would be called "strategic". At what point can I be sure that all this thinking is something I see as core to my life and my practice, outside of LTP?

Maybe it's a matter of time. Habits take a while to embed. Maybe it's going to take another holiday for it to become part of my everyday world.

But thinking about it - it's not like I haven't already mastered this technique. it's not like I don't have the skills required to do this. When it comes to my location-based technology interests - I think I'm always in the back of my mind thinking about it. Everything I do, I hear, instantly get's passed through my "what does this mean for learning, how does this alter or amend what I already know about location-based learning?". And every project I do outside of work, is based on my belief that embodied learning, outdoor learning, makes great learning, exploring and refining in order to be constantly improving theory and practice. So I've mastered the technique in one area - at home, it's just about finding a way to master it at work!

If improving my learning and teaching practice is also, truly, a passion, (and I suppose time will tell), then I think reflective practice will become habit. Implicit. One approach I'm toying with is trying to find a better way to integrate my location-based interests, (which interestingly, are all about helping learners to see the outdoor world as a place to reflect and learn), with my own teaching and learning practice at work. Could I put the two blogs together? There's a gap but where do the two meet? In my love of learning and helping others enjoy learning.

I'm working on it.

What have I got out of this?

2007-05-13T10:11:00.001Z

I always remember an old family friend recommending, when I must have been about 5 that it would be an excellent idea to start writing a diary. He said I would find it very illuminating and entertaining when I was older. I remember thinking - "older?" such a long time to go before then. I tried, so many times to get it going but there were two things that meant it was never going to work out...

I could not be motivated by some kind of entertainment or insight I would be giving myself way in the future.

I was aware of my audience - the old me. And it meant that everything I wrote sounded trite and false. "Dear diary....ugh"

This blog is the first time I've really written something close enough to be called a diary for any sustainable amount of time. And I suppose it's because I can see that there's a purpose, but also of course to a certain extent because it's assessed.

To begin with I wrote it without seriously considering anyone would read it. Then a couple of people did read it and I was suddenley faced with a simliar dilemma. and I began to think much harder about what I said. But not worrying too much, and just saying, well, to hell with it, if it's rubbish, no one's obliged to read it is a nice feeling. It's a decision you rarely have to think about when you write a private, paper-based journal.

But have I really got something out of it?

Well, I think not just this reflective bit, but the whole experience of having reflection legitimised has given me the confidence to question. I was told by someone at the start of this job that I was not there to "ask questions" I was there to just get on and do. Well, now I know that it doesn't matter what job you're in, or what role you do, asking questions is at the core of it all. It's at the core of development.

It's helped me recognise the importance of the "process" of reflection. For all Kolb's cycle's shortcomings, "feeding" between reflection and practice is essential. And it's been my sticking point throughout my studies and my career so far. I've recognised the importance of the feeding between the two but I'm only now starting to actually see how to really "do" it. To try a little thing based on an idea, to not give up immediately, to try it again, doesn't need to be big. Smaller is better. To "JUST DO IT", not THINK TOO MUCH. I've often, in the past found myself reading and reading and reading - whenever I have a problem, my first reaction is "information, get me information!". And I'm scurrying to google or the library. Partly because "doing" it is scary, "reading" about what to do is not. Now, I feel more confident about experimenting. Knowing that it's really important. THat you need to do it and even if it fails, that by giving myself time to reflect I can turn the epxerience into something valuable. I'm trying, not always succeeding, but I am trying to do. And then "think" about how that worked and try again. And try not to be a perfectionist, recognise that if it didn't work perfectly, it doesn't mean it didn't work. And actually it will be useful to understand how I got to this point and what it was that made it possible to recognise the importance of this because this is the kind of attitude I need to encourage in staff when they are trying to get to grip with learning technologies. Helping staff move around the cycle in a meaningful way.

I also see the importance of dialogue, the perspective's of others in reflection. We are not isolated thinkers and do-ers. Dialogue is crucial to understanding in the field of education (I make a point of saying in this field, because my brother has mentioned how working in maths and programming, too much discussion with colleagues, can be extremely detrimental, that sharing with others leads to stagnation). I have a colleague who has been commenting on this blog. Having gotten over the embarrassment of having someone read my highly unstructured, casual and therefore somehow "unprofessional" thoughts, his comments have been incredibly valuable. There aren't many, they're very short, but they offered focus, when sometimes it's easy to get off topic, and at other times alternative routes.

I am now thinking how good it would be to have access to my colleagues' journals - I am going to see if I can read the one colleague I know who's also blogging. How valuable it would be to read what they have to say, think about how they experiences related to mine, share ideas. I think it would be great to use blogs for peer-supported reflection after the course is over. Perhaps a better way to share and discuss than using a discussion forum!

What I've also come to recognise is the importance of separating content from delivery - how much more semantic web I can get than that! people can give feedback and offer criticism in different ways. Often, there's some emotion involved. That emotion can get my back up. The emotion stops me listening to the content. For example I really don't like complaining and moaning. But now I see that regardless of the tone of delivery of the information may be, the actual content is always going to be extremely valid. It will still tell you something about the person or the situation. Finding a way to turn off my personal reaction, or at the very least understand that my reaction to the content is being coloured, is essential in order to become, I think, what it means to be a professional, reflective, critical thinker. This also frees ME, to be critical, however I am still struggling with getting the balance right with this.

I am highly critical of myself and people who are close to me. Highly critical. But when it comes to working with people, trusting them, sometimes total strangers, I am surprisingly uncritical. I like to think the best of people. It means that as soon as I make a mistake, I instantly panic and adopt an alternative approach, before I can really be sure it really didn't work, and at the same time, if a large plan, run by someone else (in a position of authority I think...), doesn't seem to be working, I adopt an "I'm sure it's going to work out OK in the end" approach. Maybe because at the end of the day, how much control do I have over it after all. A kind of, if I can't do anything about it, there's no point thinking about alternatives.

Here's an interesting exert:
Pragmatists (such as William James) recommend optimism as a successful strategy, and recent psychological research has confirmed its value. But optimism comes at a price: optimists are less accurate in their assessments and expectations than are pessimists. Thus optimism 'proves itself to be good in the way of belief', and by pragmatic standards should count as true; but that makes the accuracy costs of optimism invisible (the problem is only exacerbated by Rorty's recommendation that pragmatists stop speaking of truth altogether). The problem prevents pragmatists from offering a Darwinian explanation of why pessimism survives, and also blocks any pragmatist account of the well-documented and highly successful exploratory behavior of many animal species.

What I do know is that for me, being critical means having practical experience first. So, I realise that in general, in the past, I have not been very critical of Learning Technologies. I've been an enthusiast. But then I suddenley realised that I'm highly critical of page-turner e-learning. It's not something that the uni do any of, but certainly something that I have experienced working in an insurance company where loads of info has to be communicated and assessed very quickly. Well, I hated those experiences - and I'm highlyh critical of them. It actually lead me into research on embodied, outdoor learning. Same goes for everything else. I shouldn't be promoting any kind of tool unless I have tried it myself. And especially because this seems to be the best way to turn on my critical radar. And this is a rule that I'm going to try and follow in the future.

So, I have started to use discussion forums, to support staff, not only in learning but also in discussions about other departmental issues, and I need to get much more involved in them myself, for my own learning, to support others, to get much deeper insight into what works, what doesn't.

My reflection has not only made me mindful about how I think, and how I do, but also about the theory and practice and thinking processes of others. Now, almost whatever I'm doing, I'm trying to think about their perspective. Understand where they're coming from. I used to do this a bit, in my training, in order to communicate effectively, but now I find myself doing it more and more in every part of my job. Not just the people I'm training but all my colleagues.

Well, this blog is still just the front end of my reflection if you like. I rarely actually reflect ON this blog. Just like the students in the Virtual Classroom, I'm reflecting and then "writing up" on here. Still very casual but definitely some filtering has already taken place.

Top five places where I generate thought crumbs - not neccessary in order:
1. At conferences and of other places where I'm meant to be focussing on what someone else is saying
2. In the shower
2. In bed just before I go to sleep (I've got a notepad on the bedside table)
3. In the car (lots of writing on arms or trying to twitter - not easy)
4. Standing in the kitchen having breakfast
5. On holiday

When I'm not "thinking" at all, that seems to be the place when all the crumbs come together. The only other time that I can FORCE it all to come together is when I am writing an essay and it HAS to be coherent. That makes some kind of cheescake base of the crumbs - all watertight and stuck together. But when I'm on holiday, I don't know if there's a metaphor that can describe it - the crumbs aren't crumbs anymore, they reincarnate (wow, religious metaphor to describe my thinking...oh well if that's all I can come up with at short notice..), they sort of become part of me - they're not crumbs out there on bits of paper, random thoughts, they become integrated with a whole set of existing beliefs, and when I talk about them now, it's not with hums and hahs and you knows it's just, or in pieces, they are part of a much bigger idea. Shame my job description doesn't include "long periods of rest and relaxation!"

OPVs

2007-05-12T08:59:00.000Z

Edward de B talks about the importance of using Other People's Views. I think second life could be a great way to support this approach.

More thinking tools!

2007-05-11T21:26:00.001Z

http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm

Edward de Bono: The Powerful Effects of Teaching Thinking Explicitly as a Skill (or the six hats)

2007-05-11T21:24:00.001Z

Really enjoyable as well!

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/videosupport/asx/sett/edwarddebonokeynote.asx

Truthmapping

2007-05-11T21:03:00.001Z

If only it were used more!

http://helpychalk.blogspot.com/2005/08/interesting-online-critical-thinking.html

Virtual Classroom: student issues

2007-05-11T20:38:00.001Z

I've been wanting to get a better insight into student experience of Learning Technologies and get to understand some of the challenges they face.  Today was really useful.  Students mentioned the difficulties they were having accessing content from home

They sometimes found they didn't have the correct reader
Online stuff was sometimes down, crashed or logins did not seem to work
 When 3 weeks of blog entries were lost.
They talked about how they have to use the computers in the computer lab which can be extremely noisy (although some learners really liked the noise, so the need to cater for different preferences is most important).
Many of the university computer labs, including tech tower and the library still don't support all the WebCT features,primarily the chat feature.  This came as a big suprise
still easier to use paper to explore ideas, and only then to type them up in a clearly formatted way.  There's no easy way to doodle and sketch diagrams in a blog yet.  I'm with them on this!

It's so easy to forget these issues when we're trying to encourage staff to use learning technologies.

That said, they also saw some positives:

Interestingly, although I'm always a bit disapproving about using the VLE primarily as a content repository, they all mentioned how much they liked being able to get their lecture notes online
Some learners felt much more confident discussing online - I have to say that I'm with them on this one.  I'm an entirely different person online or using chat than I am in a face to face group situation.
Reading other learners' interpretations of a text often helped students who had struggled to understand the original
Blogs offered confidence - making is possible to see that peers were also struggling with work.

Students also pointed out tat blogs and discussion forums seemed to require a
more formal style of writing than they used in class or in a personal
journal.  This was tied in with the fact that written content often
becomes part of their assessment.

Art: a great model for reflection

2007-05-11T20:11:00.001Z

From my own experience, art is about visual reflection for creators and viewers.  It's about offering alternative perspectives.  But never offering a final answer.  It just keeps asking questions.